Tesla has opened preorders for a wi-fi charging mat that may accommodate as much as three gadgets positioned nonetheless you need, and that is available in a kind issue “inspired by the angular design and metallic styling of Cybertruck.” The gadget is known as the Wireless Charging Platform, and it prices $300. For that hefty value you get the mat, a detachable magnetic stand that allows you to prop the pad up at an angle or lay it flat, and a few tech that we as soon as referred to as “the most promising AirPower alternative.”

Underneath the alcantara cloth cowl, Tesla’s charger has a whopping 30 Qi charging coils, which can cost your system it doesn’t matter what orientation it’s in, or the place you place it on the platform. According to Tesla’s website, the system was “engineered with FreePower wireless charging technology.” If that title doesn’t ring a bell to you, it might be as a result of it’s new — the corporate used to go by Aira, and in 2020 we referred to as its (buggy on the time) system “the closest thing to AirPower” that we might discover.

Speaking of AirPower… loads of people have compared the Wireless Charging Platform to Apple’s now-canceled product, and I completely get why. The iPhone-maker additionally promised an adjunct that will cost as much as three gadgets without delay, irrespective of the place they had been on the pad. But that was actually solely a part of what made AirPower so attention-grabbing; throughout its announcement, Apple stated you might additionally use the mat to cost your Apple Watch, and that it and your gadgets would “intelligently work together and communicate with each other to manage the charging through one more efficient charging system.”

Meanwhile, Tesla isn’t promising any of these issues. That means you received’t have the ability to use the platform to cost your Apple, Galaxy, or Pixel Watch, since most wearables aren’t appropriate with the Qi customary. And Tesla’s web page makes no point out of gadgets having the ability to talk to attain most charging effectivity.

It’s debatable whether or not that final level is that vital, although. With a 65W energy adapter, and the power to pump out as much as 15W to all three gadgets, does Tesla must optimize for effectivity like Apple deliberate to do in 2018? I don’t suppose that’d be a make-or-break function for me, although the smartwatch factor is an enormous bummer — the entire level of such a product is to have one place to cost all of your gadgets, and this could’t do this for lots of people. (I believe there are extra wearable house owners than individuals who need to cost two telephones on the common, however I could possibly be fallacious.)

Not that I’d’ve thought-about dropping $300 on a wi-fi charging pad in any case. I simply don’t have sufficient gadgets to wish one thing like that, and even when I did I really feel just like the charger’s dimensions could be limiting. If you wish to match three gadgets onto it, they’re going to be fairly packed collectively, making the power to place these gadgets wherever much less useful. And if I’m simply charging a tool or two, such a charger fairly overkill. Plus, an “integrated” USB-C energy cable on such an costly system is completely a dealbreaker for me, contemplating that I’ve a cable-munching gremlin living in my house.

The excellent news is that Tesla’s charger isn’t utterly distinctive — Nomad’s Base Station Pro made fairly comparable guarantees years in the past and used Aira’s tech, although it supplied considerably slower charging. (The firm appears to have moved in direction of utilizing magnets to align your gadgets within the latest version of the Base Station.) And when you’re keen to surrender the power to put your system down wherever, you may simply get chargers for 3 or 4 gadgets for considerably lower than $300. This one from Mophie even offers you little cutouts that ought to take the guesswork out of the place to place your system for optimum charging.

But when you’re the kind of one that desires to have the ability to wirelessly quick cost three gadgets without delay, or hate having to fastidiously place your telephone and earbuds down on a charging pad (and also you’re okay with giving money to Elon Musk), it’s cool to see FreePower’s tech displaying up in additional chargers. And hey, even with its eye-watering value, Tesla’s charger continues to be method cheaper than this luxury three-device FreePower charger.

Tesla says the Wireless Charging Platform will begin delivery in February 2023.